Mother
by mirroredsakura
Summary: Gen. Kacy Corbin and Sarah Connor are nothing alike. And yet... and yet Sarah understands.


**Title:** Mother  
><strong>Author:<strong> **mirroredsakura**  
><strong>Fandom:<strong> Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG  
><strong>PairingCharacters:** Gen / Sarah Connor  
><strong>tscc_las<strong> **Challenge: **Round #1 Challenge #5

**Warnings: **mild femslash if you want to see it that way (I don't)

**Summary:** Kacy Corbin and Sarah Connor are nothing alike. And yet... and yet Sarah _understands_.

**Disclaimer: **Not mine.

**Notes: **I realized I never posted this last entry for (the now dead and gone) **tscc_las **on LJ. There's not much to it, it's just a little Sarah introspection and an attempt to play around with the challenge prompt. It's also the last thing I've written in a while, so I thought I might put it up anyhow.

**xxxx**

**Challenge: **Comfort food

The new house came with a neighbor.

Kacy Corbin was blond, blue-eyed, and terrifyingly pregnant. On the nights she wasn't dreaming of her son dying, the world consumed by fire, strange coyotes, or three floating dots, Sarah Connor sometimes dreamed of all the horrible things that could happen to a woman like that if she continued to live so close to the Connors. Of what could happen to her baby.

Sarah Connor was no stranger to being cold and aloof when the situation called for it. It was the safest way to keep others at bay. To keep them safe.

But Kacy Corbin wasn't so easy to stonewall. She was neighborly in a way that Sarah Connor thought was reserved only for the mythical 50s housewife—if they happened to be single and pregnant. She charmed Sarah's son into performing illegal acts of television signal theft. She made Sarah remember all too clearly and painfully her own nine months carrying the savior of mankind in her womb.

"I don't even know what it is. I mean, I couldn't even think of just munching on one of these right from the jar you know? Just shoving it in your mouth and taking a bite? Like a big green, warty…_yechhh!_"

With a shudder, the blonde picked up another piece of sliced pickle delicately between her fingers and took a bite. "Seriously. I need to learn to just shut my brain off sometimes. I'm never gonna watch _The Frog Prince_without gagging again. My baby's gonna grow up pickle-less and fancy-free."

Sarah's half-smile was a little lopsided and awkward on her face, but still warm. You couldn't help but like Kacy. "Kids have a way of picking up on your bad habits."

"You said it—I'm just hoping it's the pregnancy thing. I'm so pumped up on baby juice and hormones, my taste buds have gone off the deep end. I never even used to _like_these things and now," —she gestured at the shiny new stainless steel slicer and the three jars of deli pickle— "they're like pretty much the only thing that satisfies. Soon I'll be going nuts over that sawkrut stuff, I swear."

"Sauerkraut?"

"Right, that. And I've never even _had_it, just smelled it. Home Ec was such a nightmare back then."

Sarah Connor had never taken Home Ec. Once upon a time she'd barely been able to boil an egg. Now she could make pancakes, overcook a pot roast, and light a fire in a rainstorm. High school felt like a lifetime ago.

The phone rang. Breezily, Kacy glanced at the caller ID and stopped short. It was like a cloud had come up suddenly to block off the sun in the homey little kitchen. Sarah didn't have to squint to see _TREVOR_in neat block letters on the little screen.

After a short pause, Kacy said, quietly, "Hey, Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"I think you'd better go. This could drag on awhile. Gotta let baby daddy keep tabs on me somehow right?"

For a moment she hesitated. "You're going to be okay?"

Kacy smiled broadly, shrugging her shoulders and waving away Sarah's concern with a gesture of her hand and an impatient glance at the phone. "Sure—me, my hubby, and my jar of frog juice. I'll be swell."

When Sarah closed the screen door behind her, she could already hear Kacy's voice, quiet with concern speaking into the phone. "You're okay, right? You called earlier than I thought."

When Sarah glanced back, she could see Kacy hugging a jar of pickles in one arm as if it were Trevor's arm around her.

Sarah turned and walked out before she could hear any more.

She knew about love. She knew about loss. She knew about squandering happiness with a man because she felt that the life that had sprung from her body was more important than any personal pleasure or contentment could ever be.

She didn't need to see it happen to someone else. She didn't want to see it happen to Kacy.

**xxxx**

My entries for **tscc_las **get less and less researched with each one I write, I swear. I'm not certain how this fits (or if it fits at all) within the timeline. There's the mention of the three dots thing because I was being flippant, but now that I think on it I think that came much later in the timeline than anything Kacy-related. I keep meaning to re-check this, but I never find the time.

It also bugs me that Wikipedia says Kacy's last name is Corbin (and so I used it here) while a Fox Terminator resource tells me it's Cotton. Continuity ftw.

In any case, I got voted out after this challenge, and I haven't really had any bunnies nipping at my ankles to write anything else in TSCC so maybe it'll take a re-watch to think up something new.


End file.
